German Conservatives lose elections to Green Party

The German Chancellor's political party has lost control of her home state in an embarrassing electoral reverse that signals widespread discontent with her leadership.

The Conservatives lost control of Baden-Wuerttemberg for the first time in almost 60 years, ceding it to the Green Party in a local election. It is the first time the Greens have won a state premiership, and they hailed it as a momentous result, Sky News reports.

The anti-nuclear Greens party were the shock winners of the election in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany's richest state which was ruled by the CDU for 58 years. Outgoing CDU state premier Stefan Mappus was a leading advocate of nuclear power.

The Greens, once a small fringe party, will now lead the government in one of Germany's 16 federal states for the first time, in coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The leader of the SPD, Sigmar Gabriel, urged Merkel to draft a new law to end nuclear power in Germany by 2020, Reuters says.